Wyoming Lawmaker: Expect A Bill To Abolish The Death Penalty

Wyoming House District 44 Representative-elect Sara Burlingame says she's heard a bill to abolish the death penalty in Wyoming will be put forward in the upcoming legislative session.

Burlingame, a Laramie County Democrat, says she understands the proposal will have ''strong bipartisan support" and she thinks there is a strong chance the bill will pass.

Wyoming has not executed anyone since Mark Hopkinson was put to death in January of 1992 for ordering the deaths of four people. Bills to abolish the death penalty have failed in the last 5 sessions of the Wyoming Legislature. Last year such a bill failed to win introduction in the Wyoming House by a 34-25 margin. Since 2018 was a budget session, non-budget bills needed a 2/3 majority for an introduction. The session which gets underway in January is a general session, which means only a simple majority is needed to introduce a bill in either house of the legislature.

As of Dec. 26, no bills to abolish the death penalty had been filed with the Wyoming Legislative Service Office. But bills have until January 24 to be filed in the Wyoming Senate and until January 29 in the Wyoming House of Representatives.